“This is the kind of crack political thinking that turned Sharron Angle and Christine O’Donnell into G.O.P. nominees,” Mr. McCain read on the Senate floor.

Now, Ms. Angle has responded. In a statement released on Thursday morning, she called Mr. McCain the “Lord of the TARP,” a reference to his vote in favor of the bank bailout bill in 2008, and accused him of name-calling.

“Ironically, this man campaigned for Tea Party support in his last re-election, but now throws Christine O’Donnell and I into the harbor with Sarah Palin,” she wrote. “As in the fable, it is the hobbits who are the heroes and save the land. This Lord of the TARP actually ought to read to the end of the story and join forces with the Tea Party, not criticize it.”

Mr. McCain campaigned for Ms. Angle in her losing bid to unseat Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, in 2010. He called her the “51st vote to give Republicans the majority” at a rally a few days before the election.

But his criticism of the Tea Party on Thursday did not sit well with Ms. Angle.

“Senator McCain can continue on with his borrowed soliloquies, just as he can continue to vote to raise our nation’s debt ceiling – all in an effort to spend money that we don’t have, to fund programs and policies that don’t work, with a currency that continues to lose its value,” she wrote.

And she concluded with a warning to Mr. McCain and others who question the power of the Tea Party in 2012.

“We will keep in mind those who supported increasing our nation’s mountain of debt, what could be called their very own Mount Doom,” she said.

President Obama drew criticism on Thursday when he said, “we don’t have a strategy yet,” for military action against ISIS in Syria. Lawmakers will weigh in on Mr. Obama’s comments on the Sunday shows.Read more…